


After the War

by demacomics



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:21:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23815303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demacomics/pseuds/demacomics
Summary: Aang came back and saved the world, but it was only the beginning of his story. He could never leave his friends behind, so they met up every few months in different places of the world to see each other again and stay in contact. This is what happened in those years following the war, and the connection and bond the small group of friends shared until the very end.-while tlok is a masterpiece i respect as much as atla, i disagree with the aang was a bad dad agenda. so this will go against tlok canon of the gaang, but korra's team avatar is in no way different.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	1. Three years after the war

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko's trauma

He was asleep next to the older boy, so he turned around to steal a glance at him while he could, this only time he had where no one else could ever see or know.

This is usually how it’s gone for the past few nights they had spent together this month. He could feel the warmth of Katara’s fingers that he was still holding in his own hand. Despite how much Katara protested it ever happening in the daylight to protect Aang’s pride, since his nightmares had gotten worse lately, she’d like to hold onto his hand for as long as she could while he slept so she would wake up when he did. Aang, deep in his heart, loved her more than anything in the entire world. He would never do anything to hurt her, so he held onto her hand still as he turned around.

Sokka was asleep on the other side of Zuko, his soft snores gently floating around and bouncing against all the trees in the forest. Years ago, that was how Aang used to fall asleep. It was the sounds of Sokka’s light snoring and the tossing and turning Katara always did in her sleep that made him feel safe, connected again to his future that was 100 years too late. Zuko, however, was silent. He always had been, his breath was always controlled, even in his own sleep. He never moved, and only in the last year or so he had learned to sleep on his stomach instead of his back. Toph, to the right side of Katara, was as peaceful as she only ever is in her sleep. Of course, Aang couldn’t see her through her rock tent. But he knew in the years they’ve spent together that her feet were dangling off the floor so she couldn’t see and could "close her eyes" to fall asleep.

Aang felt his eyes linger on his friends for a moment before he closed them just to revel in how he felt. He took in stock where he was, the smooth even ground they had landed on. Appa’s hot and heavy warm breaths behind him, Momo’s chattering and purring in his sleep at his feet. His toes felt the tip of his cold feet brush Momo’s rough fur, and only one of his legs felt the seclusion of being wrapped in a blanket while the other was out in the cooling night air. He felt the pebbles in the ground underneath him, but it didn’t bother him at all. It was the scar on his back that always seemed too sensitive, but never enough to hurt him. Just that he felt the cool dew blades of grass pressing beneath him into his tender skin through the scratchy blue blanket that he laid on. His head was covered with hair again and he felt the bottom pieces scratch the top of his neck, but it kept him warm so he was okay with it for now, as he told Katara yesterday who had asked him if he wanted another haircut anytime soon.

His body was still twisted towards Zuko, but he turned his head towards her again, relaxing into the feeling of the way her fingers just slightly loosened as she let out a long and slow breath. She really was so pretty, he knew that from the moment he saw her coming out of the ice. Watching her, his heart expanded and filled his lungs with a drunk intoxication of the love he had for her. Something however, like it had been the past few nights, was pulling at his attention to his left side. He guessed it was time now for much as he always put off the temptation to look at him.

Aang supposed he was supposed to love Zuko more like this, but his love for him was separate. He felt in his heart when he looked at his friends around him this connection to the world, this insane build up of love and protection when they were asleep. He knew they were peaceful, happy, safe, and together, and he would not trade that feeling for anything in the world. But he didn’t really feel that way towards Zuko. When he was twelve, he blamed it on the fact that Zuko was new and didn’t share the bond with him that the others did yet. Then that bond came. They became best friends. They began the plans to build a new city together. They began spending all their time together. They became soulmates in a way, their destinies having always been infused since the beginning. He didn’t know what or who to blame for how he felt when Zuko was asleep. All he knew is that peace did not belong to him.

Sure, many nightmares came for Aang, especially lately after his encounter on the street the other week. Sokka’s and Toph’s natural state of being were loud, and to take up as much room as possible everywhere that they went. Katara, a sure demonstration of the waterbender that she was, would never be content with complacency, and that showed in her determination that she had for always, always reaching for more, never accepting or backing down carefully. In their own ways, calm never came naturally for Aang and his friends. But peace did. At the end of the day, there was a lifeline between the four of them built upon not just years but lifetimes and echoes of love in every corner of each other. Peace was built between and within all of them. All of them except for Zuko. As loved as he was, as recovered as he was, at peace and at harmony as Zuko was, he always carried around this shred of guilt and regret within him. Of course, the group, every time they got together like this over the years, took that away again and again from him. Aang saw it each and every time. Zuko would come, just as hesitant and awkward as he was when he was sixteen years old, like he had to reintroduce himself to the group and ask for forgiveness all over again. But within minutes Sokka would bear hug him, Toph would kick him in the shins, Katara would give him a peck of a kiss on the cheek, and he would start to relax. The tension in his shoulders would begin to let go slowly, his laughs and smiles would become easy again and by the end of the night Aang felt Zuko holding that lifeline and tying it around his own heart too.

It wasn’t a spiritual or Avatar thing that Aang felt but all the same he saw that lifeline glowing golden just as vibrantly around Zuko’s heart as it was around everyone else. But it was a borrowed lifeline. It was not etched into his blood and bones like it was for the rest of the group. Peace was never born into Zuko. His destiny was to fight to save the world, and not just fight his sister or fight to train the Avatar. His destiny was to fight himself. Three years can repair a lot of damage, but it could never erase the hits that have built up and have been blown his way over an entire lifetime. So when Zuko looked peaceful in his sleep, Aang did not feel as safe as he did when the others had looked the same.

It was impossible to describe why he wanted to wake Zuko up every night. In the same place he had locked down his love for Katara, Aang locked away how he felt for Zuko as he watched his fingers just slightly twitch and curl in his sleep. It was the most movement you could really ever see coming from the young man as he slept. Aang felt no need to label how he felt when Zuko did that. It was different from when Toph was slightly embarrassed from a dumb comment she made too early, or when Sokka was the one laughing hardest at his own jokes. He knew it was love, and he had no problem ever admitting to any of the four people sleeping around him that he loved them, but it was a different kind of love. That he knew as much to be more careful to ever voice.

His eyes flitted up to Zuko’s hair where he could see in the pale light that it was soft to the touch and mussed up where it touched the outside ground. His hair looked the exact same way it had all those years ago, except if not for becoming slightly darker. It covered his forehead, and lightly touched and tickled his nose and eyes. He faced his scar to the ground, having never been bothered to sleep on that side of his body.

There was something spiritual in the way Aang felt Zuko’s breaths coming in and out of his body, but he didn’t know if that was an Avatar thing or not this time. But he could count them in and out like his own heartbeat or the rhythm in his own body. His breaths were controlled and long, and Aang would swear only to himself he could feel the oxygen in the boy's blood sleeping next to him rushing throughout his entire body. Aang felt connected to Zuko, from his toes to his hips to his chest and neck and every part of his body. In a way it felt like it belonged to him. No one else would ever be able to duplicate Zuko’s soul in the way he knew it was imprinted onto his own. Their matching scars from the same bender, the same exit point of perfectly manicured fingernails and unhinged laughter.

Aang looked at Zuko’s slim pale face in the moonlight and fought the urge to gently shake him awake, to see him laugh, to see his peace that came from when he lived with the group together, rather than when he slept alone. But of course, Aang let him sleep, and eventually, he did too. Long gone were the years Toph would wake the group with a hand to the ground announcing it was time to run. There was no need to run anymore. Tomorrow morning, Aang knew he would wake up to the sounds of Katara and Zuko heating up the pot of water as a team to feed the group for breakfast. Sometimes Toph slept in later than Aang but when she woke up early she was usually up bothering Sokka, because yeah many years can change a lot of things, but it can’t change Toph.

There were three days left they would spend all together before separating to meet up again in a few months, so Aang let himself indulge in every feeling he felt. He never felt guilty for a single one of them, because he knew he could never blame himself for how he felt. He would only ever blame himself for how he acted. And he knew in his heart, for now, that this was right. There was no passion or lust or regret or shame in the way he held Katara’s hand now, and he did not wish to be holding anyone else’s. These were his two soulmates next to him, and in no way would he trade them out for each other. But deep down in that hidden vault of his he would admit only to himself he did not wish to be asleep next to a different man either.

For now, this was exactly where he wanted to be.

.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.

“I don’t understand-”, a shower of water fell over Aang who was fast asleep seconds ago. “Why-!”, Sokka jumped out of the way of the water being flung at him and stumbled on the corner of Aang’s blanket as he landed on the floor. “You don’t EVER-”, at this Toph jumped up and made a sort of earth cage around Katara’s hands and feet that locked her into place so she couldn’t bend anymore. “Just LISTEN!” Katara finished screaming at the top of her lungs. Aang paused to rub his eyes and blink a few times at the scene developing in front of him.

So maybe Aang was wrong about what noises he would wake up the next morning.

“Katara, he didn’t mean anything by it!” Aang registered Zuko’s voice crying out from behind him.

“Oh, I meant by it!” Sokka screamed in a high pitched voice. He looked absolutely soaked, and there was something funny about the way his loose hair hung around him in this state.

“Everybody, shut UP already!” Toph screamed, slamming her feet into the ground that sent a wave that knocked everybody but Toph and Katara in her earth cage back onto the ground. Sokka who had just managed to stand back up was forced on his back onto his own blanket again. Zuko landed on top of Aang, his back pressing against Aang’s chest and it took the breath out of him.

Giving a second to collect his breath and slightly moving Zuko aside with a sheepish apology smile, Aang gently jumped to his feet with a gust of air. “What’s going on?” he asked, too confused for anger at his wake up to even seep into his voice now.

“Somebody!” Katara began yelling.

“Katara-” Sokka started.

“They both just-” Zuko calmly tried to explain.

“I’m just trying to get some sl-” Toph began to bellow out.

And that’s when Aang lost his patience. So much for being the balance and peace to the world. “ENOUGH!” There was enough air in his lungs that when he yelled that the entire forest felt like it was shaking for a second, and everyone finally quieted down. Nobody ever forgot how powerful Aang was, not even his best friends. He was about to start yelling at all of them, Toph for knocking everyone over, Zuko for getting involved when he should know at this point to stay out of their fights, and Katara and Sokka for again having yet another one of them, when he just started smiling instead. He took one look at how infuriated and small Katara looked in her earth cage, practically vibrating in her anger, when smiling turned into laughter. The seconds stretched on until he was practically cackling when finally Zuko cracked a grin. Katara just seemed to get madder, but when Toph started laughing too, she suddenly smiled herself. Within minutes, nobody could catch their breath, worsened when Toph suddenly stomped her foot on the ground releasing Katara and she fell over too. Aang didn’t even know what they were fighting about, and it didn’t matter for him to find out as they all started cleaning up the campsite and making breakfast together as a team.

Some things will just never change.


	2. Six years after the war

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko's rage

The sound of the whirl of Aang’s glider was imprinted onto Zuko’s soul. It held so many emotions for him. Hope, mostly. But it also meant fear. It meant Aang was leaving, about to take a journey of his own into the sky. It meant Aang was leaving without anybody’s help, or anybody to watch his back. It meant danger and fire slinging at him, at one point his own fire, and Zuko could hardly ever let himself forget that. It meant escape, and even now it meant escape from Zuko and a reminder of how he couldn’t protect him if Aang didn’t want to be protected. But that sound also meant coming home.

This time though, when Zuko heard the whirl of Aang’s glider meaning he had landed somewhat behind him, his blood ran cold. This time Zuko had run away from Aang. 

"What’s your problem?" and although Aang’s voice was deeper now, his childlike indignation had never left him. He sounded the same right now as he did all those years ago on the beach. And Zuko couldn’t help but to respond the same way again either.

His voice was rough, raspy from not using it when he yelled back to Aang, "What’s your problem?"

He turned to look at him and almost immediately looked away. Aang was mad. The last time he had dealt with an angry Aang directed at him was six years ago when he had burned Toph’s feet and tried to become his friend. Aang was twelve then but still had Zuko trembling on the inside, begging for forgiveness. At eighteen it was even worse. Aang was taller than he was now, but it wasn’t the height difference that scared Zuko. There was always something inside Aang that made him seem bigger than he was. The dust on the floor at his feet was bursting up in small angry heaps and piles. Zuko didn’t know how to handle his anger directed at him, and it scared him down to his bones.

"Why’d you stop responding, Zuko."

More than the words it was his tone of voice that scared Zuko most, because somehow he was still perfectly calm. Even Aang couldn’t truly manipulate the weather, but the air around him felt like it was building for a storm anyway. His eyes were calm but they were trained on Zuko, unblinking and burning a hole through his skin.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said. The words left his mouth before he gave them permission to, and without thinking it came out more forcefully and dismissively than he expected and felt inside. Good. His skin felt inflamed. Zuko genuinely started to fight off the urge to run when he realized it wasn’t just humility or fear that was making the temperature in the room skyrocket. It was Aang. Zuko had been around him long enough to know if Aang so much as thought a happy thought the leaves around him would twirl. His manipulation of air was so powerful and natural to him it reacted to the push and pull in his gut rather than Aang’s conscious decision to bend it. But when Aang was really upset the water around him would slosh around and push back and forth, creating waves too big for the containers they were in, or if by a river or ocean, too big for even the earth to hold it in. One time Zuko had seen Aang let out this horrible yell so loud the entire ocean seemed to part down the middle as far as the eye could see. He then stormed off on his glider, leaving Katara, Toph, Sokka, and him to fix the remains of the city that day as he saved the world again. Water was heartbreak and emotion. But fire? Well. When Aang was angry, really really angry, it felt like this.


	3. Seven years after the war

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zuko's friends

Aang’s heart began pounding in his chest as he sat down. He felt like he did when he was afraid, his entire body was reacting so strongly to being shut in somewhere this tight. He heard the sound of his heart beating in his ears, and everything in his body was telling him to get up and out of there. He could never get over how he felt in confined spaces, even though he logically knew he could open the door and leave anytime he wanted. Hell, he had Toph sitting next to him, and between the two of them they could be miles away before anybody even noticed they were missing. And it’s not like Toph was enjoying the ride anymore than he was. 

As much as Toph hated flying and being off the ground (she was the one who had suggested borrowing Zuko’s dragon), Zuko had insisted Druk could only hold one person at a time right now. Nobody knew exactly how old Druk was (or why Zuko had named him Druk) but Zuko argued with anybody who even looked at him funny that Druk was his name and he was just a baby. Eventually when everyone realized Druk could basically talk to Zuko the way Aang could Appa, nobody had any more questions. 

Aang missed Appa sorely, but Sokka had to take him instead, so for now Aang and Toph were stuck in the carriage that was three sizes too small. 

“Can we PLEASE just get there already,” Toph groaned. “I’m tired of not being able to see,”

“I know,” Aang said as he sighed. He felt the negative energy radiating off of Toph in waves. He hated that. “Wanna play a game?” 

“Sure, I’m down to play, Twinkle Toes. Ready for me to beat the belt off of you?” Toph grinned, the happiness and competitiveness already sneaking back into her voice. 

“Okay, let’s play,” Aang grinned back.

“Play what?” Toph said. 

“The game,”

“What game?”

“I don’t know, a game?”

“You asked me to play a game but you don’t know what game.”

An hour later when the carriage stopped moving, Aang, who was floating as long as he could so Toph couldn't find him and metal bend him to the floor and cover his mouth, was immediately pushed and knocked over by Toph who had metalbent the carriage door open (instead of just using the handle) the second the motion in the carriage stopped. 

“Ground! Sweet, lovely, beautiful ground!” Toph cried in joy as her feet made a permanent indent in the ground below. Aang clambered out of the carriage and it was his turn to push Toph when he saw Appa, Sokka, and Zuko waiting for them up the hill and smiling. Aang was running until he wasn’t. In just a second he was on the ground looking at Toph’s dust as she yelled out, somehow already in front of him, “Nobody pushes me!”

Aang frowned and the competitiveness in his heart won over his joy at seeing everybody again. They would have to wait for just a minute. He jumped up with a gust of air, made himself an air scooter, and flew past Toph. He stuck his tongue out at her, remembered that was gonna do nothing for him, and then began taunting her instead. Toph kicked the ground and Aang went flying, Aang made the earth below Toph sink 10 feet before Toph caught on and Toph made the earth fly at Aang’s chest. 

It wasn’t until two minutes later when they were both holding a rock the size of the carriage they rode there in over each other’s head at the same time that they admitted a draw, laughing until they couldn’t breathe. 

It took a second for Aang to even remember Zuko and Sokka were watching the whole thing, waiting for them to even say hello. At the same time Toph barreled into Zuko’s arms, Aang zoomed his way into Sokka’s hug. 

“What was that!” Sokka cried, his voice still cracking as he hugged Aang. 

They stood around and argued with each other for a minute, happy greetings all around, Toph and Aang reassuring Sokka six times each they were just having fun and not actually fighting before everyone clambered onto Appa. One yip yip later and they were in the sky. 

Aang was of course holding the reins and sitting at Appa’s head while everyone else relaxed into their various positions on his saddle. He closed his eyes as he listened to Sokka groan and complain about benders and how they act when they can’t bend for thirty seconds and how none of them would survive without him. He smiled. 

They bickered as they flew over the ocean, eventually settling into a quiet and peaceful calm as they made their trek into the South Pole. Aang was happy to be a part of this trip for once.

Normally over all these years they met at either where Zuko or Aang was. Zuko could usually step away from his Fire Lord duties surprisingly easily, as he made sure he wasn’t so much a “Lord” and sole leader as he was a part of a group of elected leaders in charge of the nation together. But every so often, Zuko felt his people needed him and his support and so he would ask for the group to come closer to the Fire Nation. Most of the time though the group would come to Aang because being the Avatar never really stopped and he couldn’t give or share that task to anybody else.

Funnily enough, other than last year when Zuko stopped showing up or responding to any letters for six months, everybody was always able to make it. But sometimes they had to make weird trips to get there. This time Aang and Sokka were together in Ba Sing Se when they got the news. Sokka had to stop in Kyoshi Island before he went to the South Pole, so he borrowed Appa while Aang and Toph met up in an Earth Nation colony and traveled to the oceans border together. Most of the way there was fast but tiring, the two of them literally using earthbending to run at about the same speed it would’ve taken on Appa. It may have been a faster way to travel, but it was exhausting. So even though they both hated to accept it, when an overly-enthusiastic Avatar-fanatic leader of a small Earth colony town offered the carriage for the final part of the travel, they both unanimously decided to take it. The last hour in the carriage was the only stressful part of the journey. Zuko could have logically just gone on his dragon all the way to the South Pole, Druk was admittedly faster than Appa, but they all pretended they didn’t know that when he sent him back home before getting on Appa with everyone else to finish the journey together. It was a long journey, but Aang didn’t mind. He always heard stories of how Sokka accidentally married someone on his way to pick up Zuko for one of their meetups, or how Toph got labeled an assassin in the Fire Nation once while traveling with Katara. It felt nice to be a part of the journey there for once. Especially because they all knew it was going to be the last one for a while. 

At some point when Aang was settled back on Appa as Sokka sat at the front, he began an argument with Toph that eventually had Zuko joining in to take Toph's side. There was a weird bond between the two friends that Aang didn't quite understand how it started. They refused to talk to anybody else about how they feel except each other. It was like admitting vulnerability to anybody else was a weakness, but to each other it was simply talking with a friend. Aang didn't know why nobody else in the group could offer this to Zuko, especially Katara who had essentially become his best friend, but it was only ever Toph. He guessed it had something to do with their oppressive parents and rich nobility status that made the two seem so familiar to each other. They both liked to act like they were the stronger of the lot, but knew they were the most soft-hearted around.

Although nothing official ever happened, Iroh had somewhat adopted Toph into the family. On better days, Zuko wouldn't think more of it. Toph was just another piece of his heart to him, but it was the type of affection that he never had to say out loud, Toph would just understand. But sometimes on the harder days, Toph would know he was mourning the loss of Azula. Azula was okay, she had spent a short time in prison before Zuko realized that's not what she deserved. She got the help she needed, but Azula did not ever redeem herself as Zuko did, she never became healthy or kind. She stayed as she was before her agni kai, confident and powerful. Her recovery just meant that she was no longer afraid. She lived her life freely in the Fire Nation, she posed no threat now that Ozai was not around for her to impress. She remained friends with Mai and Ty Lee, but she was always held at an arms length. She liked being alone. But that meant she wanted nothing to do with Zuko. And every day that broke Zuko's heart again and again, but Toph was always there. While she never replaced Azula, she offered the same companionship of a younger sibling that meant they were always fighting and always uplifting each other. Zuko loved Toph in the same way he would never stop loving Azula.

Sokka sat at the front of Appa, but he turned around to take Aang's side, egging the fight on just because he could. Zuko grinned at Sokka when he thought Aang wasn't looking, but he caught it. Even though they had all grown up, Sokka and Zuko were always the older brothers of the group. Even when nobody was a kid anymore, they were always acting like dads together that had to keep the peace and pick the fights for fun. Probably having to do with how young they were when they were thrusted into traveling with all the young heroes they were surrounded with, they would never stop looking after everyone else together. It created a weird bond between them, as ever awkward they were and how horrible their dad jokes could get. 

Aang felt only harmony between this group. Years had passed and the turmoil in Zuko's heart felt like it was resting finally. It could never be erased, but Zuko had confronted it head on since he was a kid. The peace in his heart was recovery, not luck, and Aang only felt that peace in his heart reflected onto his own.

A day of flying later, Appa groaned as he all but collapsed onto the ice. Aang jumped off of Appa and gave him a hug. He knew Appa had traveled much farther and for longer before, but sometimes he was prone to dramatics for attention too. “Thanks, buddy," Aang said as he smiled into his fur. “You wait here for us.” When Appa responded sounding more disgruntled than usual, Aang promised he’d bring Katara back and Appa shuffled his feet in the snow, just as excited to see her again as Aang was. 

Aang took off before everybody else was even off of Appa themselves. He knew his way into Katara’s hut blindfolded, and he set a trail of snow behind him for everybody else to follow.

Aang practically leaped into her arms when he saw her, they both teared up as they held each other for a minute. Without any warning, Toph jumped on Aang’s back and then Sokka on her back and Zuko on his. The group hug was happy and safe. Congratulations flew everywhere and it was the happiest Aang had felt in a long time. A part of his brain kept reminding him this was the last time they would meet up like this, like they had the past seven years, but he tried to fight off that thought as long as he could. 

People were gathered from every nation to celebrate. The citizens from the North Pole, the Fire Nation Royal Guard, Zuko of course, the Earth King Kuei and Bosco, and Chief Arnook and locals from all the colonies, fire nation lands, and the poorest rings of Ba Sing Se had made the journey, some taking months long, to get to the South Pole. 

Today was the day to celebrate Katara becoming chief and official leader of the Southern Water Tribe.


End file.
